YEAR 2, WEEK 2, Day 4, Thursday, 9 January 2025

https://esv.literalword.com/?q=Exodus+11

Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Thursday, 9 January 2025:

Exodus 11:1 – Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them….

God told Moses what He was doing. God not only allows circumstances to occur for His purposes, He also reveals His purposes and plans to His servants. During challenging situations in your life, you might not know what God is doing specifically, but you do know what He is doing ultimately – see Romans 8:28-29.

Exodus 11:3 – And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man, Moses was very great in the land of Egypt in sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.

God can control how people treat you and can even make your enemies live at peace with you.

Everyone appreciated what God was doing among and for His people, even Pharaoh’s servants understood it, but not Pharaoh. There is no way to overstate the danger of pride in a person’s life. Pray the God will fully expose your pridefulness to you. What can everyone else see about you to which you have become blinded. More importantly, what does God see in you others can’t even see which needs to be sacrificed to the Lord?

Listen to these comments from David Platt on Exodus 11:3: https://radical.net/podcasts/pray-the-word/312-the-lord-gave-favor-exodus-113/

Exodus 11:5 — … and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die….

This final plague, delivered after many warnings and lesser plagues, would devastate the people of Egypt cause the people of Egypt to submit to God and support the exodus. Interestingly, remember in Exodus 1, a Pharoah ordered the execution of all the Hebrew male newborns — “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” (Exodus 1:22) Now, in Exodus 11, the one son who God miraculously saved, Moses, is now announcing this final plague involving the death of every firstborn in the land not protected by God’s Passover.

• Mark 4:24 — And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.”
• Matthew 7:2 — For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Exodus 11:7 – …the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

The very apparent and unique blessings observed in the lives of God’s people is a testimony of the glory of God to the unbelieving world. The greatest distinction between God’s people and the world, the mark of the church, our ultimate testimony is our love and unity:

• John 17:20-26 — “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Exodus 11:10 – But he said to them, “The LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind.

No matter what you say or do, some people will reject the Gospel because belief is not an evidence issue but rather a heart issue.

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 9 January 2025: Pray God will expose to you any pride which remains in your character, and pray for increased humility and fidelity before the Lord.

• Proverbs 11:2 — When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.
• James 4:6 — But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
• Proverbs 29:23 — One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.